A Fond Farewell to the U.K.

Written by Dr. Janis Flint-Ferguson, Professor of English at Gordon College, who is traveling with Wisconsin Lutheran College’s group in the United Kingdom.

As we come to the end of our travels, we say a fond farewell to the British authors, the Scottish culture, the fells of the Lake District. Today we finished up our sites in London. We spent the first part of the morning at the Tate Britain, taking in the artwork of Millais, Rossetti, Sargent, and Tucker. There are some magnificent paintings related to literature that we have seen in our lit books over the years. Now, here, we see the vivid colors and the sheer size of the work. We spent some time “reading” the art form, studying the light, the figures, the shapes. Personally, I spent time with Thomas Gainsborough and his “Sunset: Carthorses drinking at a stream.” Somehow it just seemed appropriate today.

A real treat is the “Tate to Tate” boat ride on the Thames. We rode from the Tate Britain galleries to the Tate Modern galleries which sits at one end of the Millenium Bridge – St. Paul’s Cathedral on the other. As we passed by Parliament and Big Ben, the sun shone and the clouds drifted lazily overhead. It was truly a perfect spring day and people were walking along the river banks with dogs and children.

From there we spent time in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery of the British Library where first editions and handwritten manuscripts reside on exhibit. My favorite – John Lennon’s lyrics for “Hard Day’s Night” on his son’s birthday card. You really can’t make this stuff up. The Magna Carta, a Guttenberg Bible, Handel’s sheet music, and Jane Austen’s notebook. This is an English teacher’s dream gallery, even if the penmanship on some of the historic handwritten drafts leaves much to be desired.

At the end of our day we found ourselves at King’s Cross Platform 9 ¾. As the trains rumbled below us, we held on to the luggage cart for dear life knowing that it won’t be Harry Potter and Hogwarts, but Wisconsin Lutheran College and families waiting for us tomorrow.